Adam Spector and I reveal our top five films of 2019 to date

My week in TV VI: Umbrella Academy Pilot: Wes Anderson Meets Quentin Tarantino

Credit: Comingsoon.net

Umbrella Academy (Netflix)-“Pilot”- Encapsulating the feel of this show is so easy, I can do it in five words: Wes Anderson meets Quentin Tarantino.

When some freak accident in mother nature impregnates and induces labor in countless women across the globe on the same day, a shady rich man travels the world to adopt as many of the kids as he can. He ends up with seven (six of whom are still alive) then trains them in an ornate mansion to use their superpowers, but what else is new? There’s a parody on the internet by the wonderfully film literate You Tuber Patrick Williams:  “What if Wes Anderson directed the X-Men” which hits this show right on the nose.

The found family here feels like a near facsimile of the co-dependently depressed “Royal Tenenbaums”; the adult sibling who’s trapped in a kid’s body (character’s name on IMDB is listed as “Number Five”) is dressed exactly like Max from “Rushmore”; and the lavishly delicate interiors recall any number of Anderson’s films.

But as you’re thinking the show is just ripping off one of the most idiosyncratic auteurs of the 90s (although technically “Tenenbaums” was 2001), the penultimate act of the pilot, Number Five goes into a diner and casually murders (and rewatch this clip, it’s not self-defense but rather gleeful brutally) five SWAT  team members while lights flicker, fast edits ensue, the victims’ last gasps fill the soundscape and the song ”Istanbul Was Once Constantinople” plays in the background. The sensory overload and the glorified violence recall Tarantino and it’s even more jarring here.

From the pilot, the show has a lot of questions left unanswered and Mary J Blige, supposedly the season’s villain, hasn’t yet made an appearance. The other recognizable name in the credits, Ellen Page, works well as a cog in the ensemble.

Despite the stylistic “been there done that” feeling, there are moments of inspiration that come from sheer stylistic  boldness. The montage of Ellen Page’s character playing the violin, for example, while the other protagonists are introduced is endlessly rewatchable.

Coming face-to-face with a Tarantino film for the first time

I wasn't sure what to expect from Inglorious Basterds. It was the first film by Tarantino that appealed to me because while I like film noir: a Japanese-inspired urban crime drama has been his last 4 or 5 films' themes if i'm not mistaken and none of them appealed to me. We had to watch Pulp Fiction for class but we watched it out of order and skipped major parts so it didn't resonate with me.

Anyways, I wanted to see this film because it is shot in the outdoors and i wanted to see how the cinematography would go. I also thought the idea of Tarantino tackling a period piece and putting his stamp on one of the most established genres he'd otherwise have no business belonging in was too irresistible to miss.

My impressions on Tarantino:
1. One of Tarantino's trademarks as I gather it is finding creative ways to kill people. That's never appealed to me, personally. I don't like blood and gore that much. If that's Tarantino's creative capital, what separates him from the pack, that's not something I'd be on board entirely. I think anything other than a rapid death is unneccessary cruel and inhumane and I don't see the point in celebrating it. I'm not so much disgusted by it, but I feel like it's equivalent to a director showing off how graphically he might be able to convincingly portray a dog-fighting ring.


2. He also likes to remain steadfast to his cultural cues even when not entirely organic to the film and that creates a personal stamp. I was thinking that the score seemed most out of place, along with some other things.

3. Another thing is really good dialogue. Who wouldn't appreciate that? The best dialogue writers tend to gravitate towards dramedies and melodramas: Jim Sheridan, Cameron Crowe, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Kenneth Longorean, Sophia Coppolla and Diablo Cody. How many of these scribes would take on an action film. Tarantino is the only one and that increases his value in Hollywood exponentially because action sells the best.

4. Suspense: because violence is really heavy
Suspense: because violence is really heavy and could be gruesome and we don't want characters to die too gruesome a death, the film's can be more suspenseful than they otherwise would have been.

Prediciton for the AFI list: top 10 Westerns

1. The Searchers, John Ford-High Noon and The Searchers are usually what most film scholars will tell you are the two greatest Westerns ever made. The Searchers had an outrageously low ranking in the 1998 list of 96, but in the 2007 list, The Searchers skyrocketed up to somewhere between 10 and 20 (if I were to go check, than I might see more results than I want to). The Searchers is the seminal moment in John Ford's career and was John Wayne's richest character, both the two main icons of the film Western. It's also the only Western that some people in the film community cite as the greatest American film ever, period.
2. High Noon, Fred Zimmerman-The other Western that's truly an American classic. It's casting was perfect, it has the most tightly coiled narrative and introduced a number of innovations: The theme music contained an opening song, the film moving in real time, etc. It also had political subtext and the people behind the movie are rewarded with bravery, in retrospect
3. Stagecoach, John Ford-If The Searchers was the apex of Ford and Wayne's career, it all started with Stagecoach which revolutionized the Western by introducing both of them to the big stage. Stagecoach is a masterfully done tale that's admired and next to Searchers and High Noon, I'll bet it's the only film that most people in the film industry agree deserves to be included on the pantheon of classics.
4. Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpaugh-Wild Bunch revolutionized the use of violence in movies and has a terrific narrative. It changed the nature of Westerns toward outlaws vs lawmen rather than on conflicts within a town that a hero would have to chose the right side to be on. It's also a very fun movie, but I most believe it's going to be #4 simply because it was ranked pretty high on both AFI lists, previously.
5. Shane, George Stephens-I find it to be kind of a corny film, but the experts consider it in the realm of classics and it has been voted both times. Jack Palance from City Slickers got an academy award for it. Perhaps, they view it as the definitive Western from the point of view of a child, since the star of the film besides Alan Ladd's Shane character is really a 12-year old kid.
6. Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood-Unforgiven might rank closer to 10 or 12 on a list of Westerns among film scholars who are experts specifically on the evolution of the Western, except for the fact that Clint Eastwood is so hot right now, so retroactively his film career enjoys a big bump. It is truly a good film but it would be an oversight to label it as the first retrospective Western that demythified what came before it. (That might be McCabe and Mrs Miller)
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd, George Roy Hill-Kind of like the rock stars of the Western, Paul Newman and Robert Redford's characters defined the Western heroes as supercool. But else why would Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd be selected at #7? Redford and Newman are both still alive and command a lot of respect, and this film made the top 100 twice.
8. Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks-All the John Ford films She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, How the West Was Won, My Darling Clementine, and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance will open the way to some sneakers to make it through do to vote splitting. With the help of Quentin Tarantino's tireless promotion (it's his favorite film) and the crowd that enjoys a light-hearted Western that can make them laugh, fawn over the romantic interests, and root for sympathetic characters plus the Dean Martin fan contingent, Rio Bravo should be able to seperate itself from the rest of the pack nicely.
9. How the West Was Won, John Ford-Is this John Ford's 3rd best film? Not necessarily, but it's his most grandiose title and some voters (like myself at first glance) might confuse this with Once Upon a Time in the West and vote for it. Plus, I hear it has Debbie Reynolds in it, who is still alive and actively pimping her career.
10. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Rob Altman-I seriously think that whether McCabe & Mrs. Miller makes this list will serve as a litmus test to whether the film community truly feels that Altman's work was great enough to be considered among the classics. Altman had an extra entry in the top 100 last year with the addition of 1975's Nashville, and I know there are a lot of other good films after the first 9 such as Duel in the Sun, Red River, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and My Darling Clementine but are any of them as definitive as this film (and like I said, there's vote splitting to worry about)? McCabe & Mrs. Miller demythified the genre significantly more than anyone else, and was such an interesting take on existing genre conventions.

Reason #39 not to be a film critic: It won't make Quentin Tarantino love you

I think this clip is illustrative of the kind of tensions that exist between critics and filmmakers, especially one as niche-oriented as Quentin Tarantino. In this clip, Quentin Tarantino blows up at a San Fransisco film critic who says that the film Kill Bill is inappropriate to 12 year olds. Without having seen Kill Bill, I don't have an opinion either way, but many of the viewers on youtube who post comments are in support of Tarantino for telling the snotty film critic off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYu6fpaNrBA